Go Battle League season three was originally planned to begin 16 days ago. What a different world April was. Now, we’re ever so quickly approaching GO Fest and the new start date of Monday, July 27 at 1 PM PT. And earlier today we finally got the full breakdown for season three from The Pokemon GO Team.
If you reached rank seven this season, then you’ll get a nice little gift of one Elite Fast TM when you go to the battle screen at the start of season three. This item lets you teach any learnable move to a Pokemon, even ones that it previously only learned during Community Day or other events.
It also appears that the social distancing measures implemented in the GO Battle League will be staying around at least for the rest of season three. That means there will still be no distance requirements to do more battles and you only need to be Good Friends in order to battle someone remotely.
You’ll also still get the Pikachu Libre outfit if you haven’t reached rank seven in seasons one or two. And this time around there will be no changes made to the number of wins needed to reach rank seven.
On top of all that, are a ton of new pokemon to encounter and other rewards. This time around clearing ranks one (Pidgeot), four (Galarian Zigzagoon), seven (Galarian Farfetch’d), eight (Rufflet), nine (Scraggy), and 10 (Pikachu Libre) you can encounter all different Pokemon than before.
You’ll also earn a new pose and avatar item if you can reach rank 10 this time around. We’re not sure what they are yet, but it looks like the Champion Steven rewards are not returning for season three.
As for other rewards, reaching rank seven in Go Battle League season three will net you the standard rewards plus an Elite Charged TM. Also, if you use a premier battle pass, then you’ll get Rare Candies by winning just four matches. But the number you get will go down from eight to six.
And if you had trouble winning this season, then it’s gonna get even worse for you in GO Battle League season three. Battle Until You Win is going to be removed this time around. That means you get no chance at a reward if you lose five matches in a row.
The leagues you can choose from are going to stay essentially the same, with the exception of the Ultra League Premier Cup. Just like the Master League Premier Cup, it adheres to the standard CP limitations, but Legendary Pokemon are banned from competition.
Also, this season we will get to participate in the Flying Cup for the very first time. As you may have inferred, only Flying-type Pokemon can participate in this competition. And this is just one of two special events that are planned for GO Battle League season three. Details on the other are still to come.
What’s more, we have some updates on Pokemon and move updates being made for GO Battle League season three. First, here are the moves that will be changed for trainer battles:
| Attack | Change |
| Drill Peck | damage increased |
| Brave Bird | damage increased, severely lowers user’s attack |
| Infestation | generates energy faster |
| Hex | generates energy faster |
| Powder Snow | damage increased |
| Blizzard | damage increased |
| Flash Cannon | requires more energy |
| Focus Blast | damage decreased |
| Moonblast | decreased chance of lowering opponent’s attack |
It seems like this could finally be a big hit to Registeel that drops it out of it’s high spot on most tier lists. But we’ll have to wait and see how impactful these nerfs on Flash Cannon and Focus Blast are.
Fewer moves have been modified for Gyms and Raids:
| Attack | Change |
| Drill Peck | damage increased |
| Brave Bird | damage increased |
| Hex | generates energy faster |
Last but not least, four Pokemon will be getting new attacks:
| Pokemon | New Attack | Type |
| Braviary | Close Combat | Fighting |
| Abomasnow | Weather Ball | Ice |
| Pelipper | Weather Ball | Water |
| Empoleon | Drill Peck | Ground |
It’ll be interesting to see how these new attacks will help boost the standing of these Pokemon in the GO Battle League season three tier lists. The one that stands out the most is Drill Peck on Empoleon since Steel-types are so good.
It’ll surely be nice for Empoleon and Braviary to have attacks that are super effective against some of its more bulky opponents.
Finally, the schedule will follow the same order as before where we open with the Great League, move to the Ultra League, then to the Master League, and wrap up with all Leagues. Here is the full schedule as it stands now (all times are 1 PM PT):
| Event | Date |
| Great League | July 27 – Aug 10 |
| Ultra League/Premier Cup | Aug 10 – Aug 24 |
| Master League/Premier Cup | Aug 24 – Sept 7 |
| All Leagues/Premier Cup (no CP limit) | Sept 7 – Sept 14 |
| Season Four Begins | Sept 14 |
This time around every League will get an equal amount of time, but we’ll see if this schedule changes at all over the coming months.
That’s all we know about GO Battle League season three right now. If you would like to read the official post from The Pokemon GO Team about GO Battle League season three, you can find it right here.
